A Glimpse of Normality
by psyraven
Summary: It's the summer of 2011 and the UES is still recovering from one of its biggest ever shocks. What could have happened at the society wedding of the year? And what happens now that the dust has settled? Dan/Blair - Dair
1. Chapter 1: Serena gets some insight

**Author's Note: I haven't written any Gossip Girl fic before and I've been a somewhat intermittent watcher of the show, but Dan and Blair have completely sucked me in with their glorious combination of witty repartee and sweet romance. This is my take on what could happen at the end of this season... From Serena's POV and half of it's in present tense, just because it came out that way. I guess Serena's a 'live in the now' kinda girl. :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gossip Girl, obviously; it belongs to Cecily von Whatsherface and the CW**

**Spoiler alert: This fic assumes certain events at the end of this fourth season based on some spoilers that have been floating around. If it turns out I've got it exactly right, I can look forward to a new career as a psychic, but anyone trying to stay spoiler-free might want to steer clear...  
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**Reviews are always welcome!  
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Serena can still remember the day she watched her best friend and her ex-boyfriend go speeding away from a society wedding in an antiquated little white car. It's permanently emblazoned on her memory as a haze of flowers and ribbons; solemn introductions and one very loud 'I object'; tears and smiles and confessions of love (and more than a few accompanying expressions of shock and confusion).

Of all the reasons she'd thought Blair rushing into marriage with Prince Louis was a Very Bad Idea, 'Because you're really in love with Dan Humphrey' hadn't even made the list. But there it was. No one who'd been present at the wedding that day would soon forget the vision of Blair Cornelia Waldorf pulling off her veil, stuffing her bouquet hurriedly into Dorota's arms, turning to Louis to offer a quick but heartfelt 'I'm _so_ sorry' and then hitching up her skirts to run back down the aisle towards a somewhat dishevelled Dan, whose grin at her approach could have lit up all of Manhattan. In the end, after all, she'd chosen love.

Serena had to admire her for that. Blair was usually the one who was all about responsibility and practicality. To watch her throw caution to the wind and fully embrace her hopelessly romantic side in a whirl of tulle and emotion had been strangely moving. It should have been harder for her to be happy for them, she thought. Given the history between her and Dan, not to mention the whole Nate situation that still sometimes overshadowed her relationship with her best friend, she thought that she should have felt bitter that Blair had taken over that place in Dan's heart that had once been hers alone.

Watching them together that day, though, she thought it more likely that Blair had carved out a new space all of her own, his love for her possessing him to the exclusion of all who'd come before. Serena thought that that was probably fair, all in all. Blair deserved to be adored; loved unconditionally, and placed before all else by the man she gave her heart to. God (and Serena) knew it had been trampled on enough times before.

The summer had passed like a long and weary exhale, sapping the energy from those UES alumni who remained in the city. Serena had caught up with Nate a few times, and they'd shared their astonishment at their friends' romantic escapades. They'd each received the occasional text message: 'Kerouac should have tried spending five weeks on the road with Blair Waldorf – he'd have really gone schizo then.' and 'Dan thinks I should go to a truckstop bathroom! I could catch hepatitis! I miss my en-suite…' The pair have yet to return though and, when Serena does finally manage to get hold of Blair on the phone, she ends up unable to determine if they're desperately in love or about to murder each other.

"S!" is the familiar cry of greeting and Serena feels a rush of warmth to hear her best friend's voice at last.

"Oh my god, B! Finally! I've been trying to get hold of you for over two weeks now." She's been trying not to worry too much, telling herself that Dan was with Blair and that _surely_ he could manage to keep her from antagonising the locals into tarring and feathering her. Wherever they were.

"Ugh, I know. Network coverage out here in the ass-end of nowhere is frankly pathetic. I'm lucky if I manage to stay in a coverage zone long enough to send the occasional text message to you or my Mom."

"You could always use a payphone," interjects the amused tone of Dan Humphrey, who sounds like he's standing fairly close to Blair.

"Please, Humphrey," she scoffs. "Have you seen them? They ought to be painted with biohazard warning signs. How you always manage to find the most revoltingly fetid little holes for us to stop at, I don't know. You must be gravitating to your natural level.'

"Nah, word's got 'round. The nice places won't let me bring you any more."

Serena listens in growing bemusement. They sound just like they always did and she's struggling to reconcile this snarky interplay with the couple who fell into each other's arms just a few scant weeks before.

"Are you two okay?" she asks hesitantly. "Are you fighting?"

"What?" Blair sounds genuinely puzzled. "No, why?"

"I think Serena's confused by us fawning all over each other in such abject adoration," Dan suggests with sardonic amusement. "It's probably embarrassing her."

Blair's peal of laughter startles Serena. "Oh, S, please… what were you expecting? Dan and I haven't changed who we are just because we were unfortunate enough to discover an unexpected chemical compatibility."

"You _can_ call it falling in love, you know. It won't kill you." Dan's exasperation makes it clear that this is an ongoing argument.

"It sounds positively plebeian. I prefer to say that I… formed an amorous attachment."

"You know that means the same thing, right?"

"Maybe, but it sounds much more dignified."

"Yeah, you weren't worrying too much about your dignity last night, when you were riding me like a…"

"DANIEL!"

"I'm just saying…"

"Well, I'm sure your _ex-girlfriend Serena_ doesn't want to hear the details."

Serena chuckles on the other end of the line. "Actually, it's better than cable. You guys are hilarious. Are you always like this?"

Blair sighs. "Sadly, Humphrey fails to show me the proper respect and appreciation on a daily basis."

"Hey! I appreciate the hell out of you."

Blair's giggle is girlish and happy. "All right, that may have been a slight exaggeration. Honestly, S, we're just fine. Actually, we're on our way back. We should be back on the Upper East Side in just over a week. We both have school starting soon and there's a lot to sort out before the new semester." She hesitates. "So… how is everyone?"

Serena knows 'everyone' mostly means 'Chuck'. He'd been unhappy enough about the planned royal wedding. His reaction when he found out about the unexpected gatecrasher and the romantic escape had been… hard to read. On the one hand, Serena hoped he was learning to put Blair's happiness first for a change. But on the other hand, it would have been easier to lose her to a loveless marriage than to a blistering affair. And with Dan Humphrey, no less! Chuck had become a virtual recluse since the wedding and Nate and Lily were the only ones able to get through to him at all.

She didn't want to go into all of that with Blair over a cell phone connection that could drop out at any moment. "They're fine," she says instead. "Mom and Rufus are okay, especially now that the perjury case looks likely to settle out of court."

"Yeah, we heard. That's great news!" Blair says.

"Nate's been hanging around the city for the most part. Raina came to visit from Chicago, so that cheered him up for a while."

"I'm sure it did. Poor Archibald… in thrall to the Queen of the Windy City. How long before he transfers to Northwestern?"

"Who knows? This is Nate." Serena shrugs, never sure whether Nate is hopelessly in love or just hopeless.

"Fair point. It'll probably be over by Thanksgiving, then." Blair notably doesn't ask about Chuck. Or Vanessa. She lets out an exasperated sigh, instead. "Humphrey is eyeing his watch in an extremely unsubtle manner. I think we need to get back on the road, which means I'll probably lose my signal in a matter of minutes."

"All right. Well, text me when you get closer to the city, okay?"

"We will." The line goes silent for a moment and Serena wonders if the connection has been lost already. Then, "I missed you, S. Are… are we okay? You and me? You know… about all this?"

The worry in Blair's voice dissolves that last little hard ball of resentment in Serena's stomach. "Absolutely," she says, and means it. "You know all I've ever wanted is for you to be happy, B. You are happy, right?"

"Sickeningly so."

Serena smiles. "Then, that's enough for me. Now hurry up and get back here, so I can catch up on the whole story. I can't believe my best friend had the romance of the century and I'm totally out of the loop."

"I'd hardly call it 'the romance of the century'," Blair scoffs.

"It made Vanity Fair," Serena says slyly.

"Really?" Blair was obviously trying not to sound too excited.

"Uh-huh. They called you the Taylor and Burton of the Upper East Side."

"Well, it's not the most apposite comparison, but I suppose it will do."

"As long as you don't end up getting married twice like they did."

Blair is quiet for a moment. "Let's hope not," she says eventually. "What would anyone do with two complete china services?"

"Knowing you, throw a party for the entire Upper East Side," Serena laughs. "Take care, B. I'll talk to you soon."

She hangs up the phone and sighs, feeling suddenly melancholy as she reflects that it has been several months now since she has been in a relationship. Speaking to Blair had just highlighted how alone she had been feeling lately, particularly in the last few weeks with most of her closest friends out of town and Chuck in self-inflicted solitary confinement.

It will be good to have Blair and Dan back in town, she reflects. Just like old times. She pauses, and considers the conversation on which she had been an unwitting eavesdropper. _Well, okay… maybe not __**exactly**__ like old times._


	2. Chapter 2: On the road again

**Author's note: Thank you _sooo _much to everyone who reviewed the first part. Your comments made my week. Seriously. :) I hope you enjoy the next instalment...**

Blair hung up the phone and settled back in her seat with a sigh of relief, winding down the window to allow some air into the stiflingly hot car. Early on in their little road trip, she'd been forced to make the choice between having her hair blown around by the wind or sweating until she stuck to the leather seats; in the end, she'd opted for the breeze and invested in a selection of chic little silk headscarves. Combined with a pair of almond-shaped sunglasses and the selection of fitted summer dresses she had taken to wearing as her routine wardrobe, they gave her the look of a 1960s movie star.

It didn't hurt that Dan had confessed that he found her new look a bit of a turn-on; of course, he'd then followed it up by admitting that he found pretty much all of her looks to be a turn-on. She still wasn't quite used to these throwaway compliments he just tossed into the conversation every now and then, and they still had the power to make her stomach flutter with nervous excitement. The truth was that, for all her vanity and egotism, she'd never felt truly beautiful in her life until she started to see herself through Dan Humphrey's eyes. Maybe because with him she always sensed that he saw the surface she put on for the world as just decoration; it was the girl underneath that he really saw. And loved.

"You feel better now you've sorted things out with Serena?" said the man in question from the driver's seat as they pulled out of the parking lot of the small café where they'd stopped for lunch.

"Yes," she admitted. "Honestly, I've been kind of wondering this whole time how she'd react to me stealing you away from her."

"You didn't steal anything, Blair," Dan glanced over at her in reassurance. "Serena and I were over a long time ago and, frankly, she wouldn't have a leg to stand on trying to take the moral high ground on this. Remember what she did to you with Nate?"

"I know," Blair said. "I also remember how much it hurt, and I didn't even really love Nate. I loved the idea of him more than anything, but it still upset me that she went behind my back like that." She lowered her eyes, picking nervously at a loose thread on the seam of her skirt. "I just… never wanted to hurt her. What if she'd still been secretly hung up on you?"

"I think you overestimate my allure."

Blair glanced at him sideways, a flirtatious smile hovering on her lips. "You'd be surprised, Humphrey. Maybe you exude some sort of primitive pheromone that renders all Upper East Side women helpless slaves to your masculine appeal." She was openly grinning now.

"Now, see, you say that, but I don't think you really mean it." He gave her that look of exasperated amusement that she so often inspired.

"Well, there has to be some sort of explanation," she said mockingly. "I mean, we know for a fact it's not your charm. Or your singing voice."

"Oh, are we really going to go _there_, Ms Stand-By-Your-Man?"

Blair gave him a tight little smile. "For your information, Humphrey, I was very, _very_ drunk on that occasion. I actually have a quite delightful mezzo-soprano voice when I'm not under the influence."

"I'll have to take your word for it." His tone clearly indicated that he didn't believe a word of it. Blair's hackles rose.

"Okay, you know what? Fine! Find us a town with a karaoke bar, Humphrey, and I'll prove it to you."

Dan shot her a disbelieving glance. "Really? Blair Waldorf… doing karaoke… in a small town in Connecticut? Man, where's a camcorder when you really need one?"

"There will be no filming!" Blair insisted vehemently. "We will _not_ be having a repeat of my birthday party fiasco, I can assure you." She glared at him in remembered reproach. "And it's not Blair Waldorf any more, remember?"

"Fine!" He grinned over at her, his whole face lighting up. "Blair Waldorf-Humphrey. And, to be honest, that doesn't make the idea any less unbelievable." He reached a hand across to clasp hers and rubbed his thumb gently over her wedding band, a gesture that was quickly becoming a habit of his. She sighed shakily, still a little shocked that they'd actually gone through with the crazy idea that had gripped them both a few weeks before. He noticed her reaction and brought her hand to his lips for a gentle kiss before relinquishing it to grip the wheel again.

"Is it weird that it doesn't feel weird?" Blair mused, staring out the window at the passing scenery of western Connecticut.

"What? The married thing?" He frowned. "I don't know. It just feels…"

"Right," she said, rolling her head to the other side to stare at him, tracing his profile with her gaze before lingering on the strong forearms and those beautiful hands that were now intimately acquainted with every inch of her. She didn't think she'd ever tire of admiring the view.

His lips quirked up at the corners. "Very right. Natural, even. Sometimes I think we've been acting married for months, now."

Blair chuckled. "There is that. At least now, we won't have to sneak around any more. No more smuggling you out through the bathroom so Dorota won't catch us together."

"No more hiding you in my closet when Nate drops by unexpectedly."

"No more ducking into dark corners at parties because we can't wait another minute to make out."

They exchanged a glance. "Well, maybe we could still do that one," Dan suggested hopefully. "That one had a definite up-side."

Blair smirked and arched slightly in a languid stretch, watching his eyes flit momentarily to her chest. "Maybe you'll have to learn to display a little restraint, Humphrey."

"I'll have you know I display restraint all the time," he said, fingers gripping the wheel until his knuckles whitened. "I'm displaying it right now by not pulling off the road and kissing you senseless."

Blair's husky laugh made him shoot her a look eloquent with suppressed desire and she felt the breath catch in her throat. She coughed slightly. "I suppose that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing," she said casually. "Perhaps there's a private spot around here somewhere…"

"You know we still have to work out how to break the news to everyone back home," Dan pointed out that evening over dinner. (Blair had turned her nose up at the restaurant décor, the menu and the clientèle but, condescension successfully accomplished, was now tucking into Chicken Marsala and grilled summer vegetables with every appearance of enjoyment.) "They might have just about got used to the idea of us as a couple by now, but getting used to us as a _married_ couple is a whole other level of bizarre."

"It should be easier for my family," Blair shrugged, taking a sip of her drink. "They were expecting me to get married anyway. They'd probably already adjusted to the idea."

"Blair, they'd adjusted to the idea of you marrying a French _prince_, not a penniless writer from Brooklyn," Dan argued. "I can't see them being all that pleased with the trade-in."

"Don't put yourself down, darling," Blair said sweetly. "You're not penniless. Just very, _very_ poor."

"Gee, thanks!"

"Anyway," she said, waving a hand airily in dismissal of his concern, "at the end of the day, my parents just want me to be happy and it's not as if I don't have enough money for the both of us."

"So, basically, what you're saying is… I've married up."

She smiled sunnily at him, enjoying the look of bemused irritation on his face. "Exactly!" She gave an exaggerated gasp and opened her eyes wide. "It's like the Humphrey family tradition!"

"That's very funny. No, seriously. You should make that joke when we tell my Dad and Lily," Dan deadpanned.

Blair ignored him, tilting her head to one side in feigned consideration. "Ooh, maybe I should warn Nate! Just in case Little J has her sights set on landing a Vanderbilt…"

"Yeah, yeah… I'm cracking up over here." He shook his head in exasperation.

Blair collapsed in giggles and returned to her meal.

They'd nearly finished their main course before she revisited one of his comments. "My parents like you, you know, Dan. I'm sure it will be fine. I'm much more worried about how _your_ parents are going to react when they find out we got married. I don't think Rufus likes me very much." She bit her lip nervously after she said it, and Dan realised how much it must have cost her to make that admission. He decided to set her mind at ease a little.

"Actually, my Dad was sort of the one who told me to crash the wedding," he admitted, remembering how shocked he'd been when Rufus had said that. He'd pretty much resigned himself to losing Blair for good at that point, and had just been looking for someone to pour out his troubles to over a bottle of bourbon. But then his Dad had started talking about how much he wished he'd stuck around and fought for Lily way back when, instead of giving her up so easily. He'd warned him not to make a mistake he couldn't live with for the rest of his life.

"You _told_ him about us?" Blair was the only woman he knew who could yell _sotto voce_. He winced at her reaction. "Humphrey! You weren't supposed to tell anyone! What part of 'secret affair' did you not understand?"

"I'm sorry!" he said, glancing round to make sure they weren't creating too much of a scene. "The woman I loved was about to marry a French _prince_! Forgive me if I wasn't thinking too clearly. Dad found me with a glass in one hand and a bottle in the other at 9am in the morning and pretty much dragged the whole thing out of me."

"So what did he say?" Blair fiddled with the stem of her wine glass. "When you told him you loved me?"

Dan smiled at her and reached a hand out to capture hers. "Actually, he said you remind him a lot of Lily."

Blair's face lit up. "Really? But she's so…" She shrugged helplessly. "I mean, I always looked up to her when Serena and I were growing up. She was so perfect, so immaculate. If Audrey was my cinematic idol, Lily was my real-life one. I just…" She pressed her other hand over her heart. "I can't believe he said that."

"Then," Dan added, "he said that I shouldn't be as stupid as he was. That if I really cared about you so much that the thought of you being married to someone else was enough to drive me to drink, I probably ought to do something about that."

"Well, you certainly did that," Blair said, glancing up at him coquettishly from under her eyelashes. "Dorota still hasn't recovered from that sweeping romantic gesture of yours, by the way. I don't think she's even capable of mentioning your name without sighing." She smirked at his embarrassment. "And to think, she didn't like you at all when we first became involved."

Dan let go of her hand and leaned back, feeling suddenly offended. "She didn't like me? What did I ever do to Dorota?"

"Oh, nothing," Blair hedged, not making eye contact. "I mean, it's possible that my vehement criticisms of you over the years _may_ have had some sort of… seepage effect."

"_Seepage_ effect?" Dan laughed in disbelief. "Are you kidding me?"

Blair leaned one elbow on the table and twirled a silky brunette curl around one slender finger. "So, I may have inadvertently brainwashed my maid into thinking you were beneath my notice…"

"Inadvertently? Believe me, Blair, that was as advertently as it gets."

"Advertently?" Blair narrowed her eyes. "Are you _sure_ you're a writer?"

Dan sighed and rolled his eyes. "Let it go."

"I mean, it's obviously a concern. Oh, no! Perhaps you've just been pretending all this time, and I've unknowingly married a professional cater-waiter." Blair pulled a face of mock horror and he couldn't resist smiling at her. She was just so freaking adorable sometimes. Usually when teasing him mercilessly, now that he thought about it. Maybe that said something about his psyche…

"So, did you tell her we got hitched?"

Blair grimaced. "Ugh, I wish you wouldn't call it that. It sounds so common. And, no… as it happens, I haven't told Dorota yet. Telling Dorota would be roughly equivalent to telling Gossip Girl. It would be all over the Upper East Side within twenty-four hours."

He couldn't really argue with that. "So, we need to come up with a plan of how to tell everyone, then."

"Please, Humphrey, don't tax yourself. Planning isn't your strong suit, remember?" She smiled at him teasingly. "I'll come up with a plan and you can just follow my lead. Again."

"Why do I have this horrible sense that that is going to be the story of my life?" Dan said, giving her a quizzical look and wondering why the idea of it was strangely appealing.

"Because it is," she said chirpily. "Too late to back out now, Humphrey. You're stuck with me. Now, pass me that menu, I'm in the mood for dessert."


	3. Chapter 3: A song in their hearts

**A/N: Once again, thank you so much to everyone who reviewed. I don't usually respond to reviews, but I do read them all avidly and it really does give me such a high to know people are reading and enjoying what I've written.**

**This chapter gave me fits at first, and then the last half of it almost wrote itself - writing is strange like that. :) I hope you all enjoy this latest instalment.**

# = #

In the end, it was a couple more days before Blair was able to prove her point about her singing voice. Dan had half forgotten about their little argument (they had so many, after all) when she suddenly squealed in his ear as they drove through a little town not far from Hartford, almost making him swerve into a fire hydrant.

"Jeez, Blair," he said, heart rate slowly returning to normal, "Can you not make that noise when I'm driving?"

"You know, for someone who's so easily spooked, you may have picked the wrong woman to marry."

He shot her a look. "What can I say? I like living on the edge. So, what was all the shrieking in aid of?"

She grinned at him, that Cheshire-cat smile that never boded well. Dan felt the usual accompanying sense of creeping dread, knowing that no matter how much opposition he put up to whatever hare-brained scheme she'd come up with, inevitably he would get dragged into it anyway. "I spotted a notice outside that bar we just passed. They have karaoke here tonight. It's clearly a sign."

"Yeah, it's a sign that says 'Karaoke'," Dan said incredulously. "You can't be serious about wanting to do that, can you?"

"Well, you obviously didn't believe me when I told you I could sing, so I'll just have to prove it to you. Who knows? Maybe they'll even be able to make a passable margarita, unlike everywhere else we've been for the past three weeks." She sighed in frustration. "I live in hope that one of these backwoods barmen has actually read a cocktail manual. I mean, how hard can it be? If they'd just let me back there, I could probably make one myself!"

"Well, it's good to know you've got an alternative career path all picked out… you know, if the whole 'Devil Wears Prada' thing doesn't work out for you." He smirked, waiting for her to pick up the bait.

"Why wouldn't it work out for me?" Blair glared at him. "I'm perfect for that job!"

"You're right. What am I thinking? I mean, you practically _are_ Anna Wintour. Only, you know, younger, prettier and with better hair." He grinned over at her and noticed she was trying not to smile at the compliments.

"Flattery will get you nowhere you haven't already been, Daniel. And, stop trying to change the subject. I want to participate in the karaoke tonight, therefore we need to find somewhere suitable to stay around here. Preferably somewhere that isn't run by inbred mountain people." She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

He chuckled slightly. "We're hardly in Appalachia, Blair. This is central Connecticut and there aren't any mountains for miles. I can assure you that practically no-one plays the banjo around here."

"Oh, you laugh now, but it's always the husband who gets picked off first, you know," Blair pointed out with a sweet smile in his direction.

"You may have a point there," he conceded. "Be sure and let me know if you spot anyone suspicious loitering around."

"They _all_ look suspicious," Blair insisted. "Who but a deeply suspicious character would possibly want to live _here_?" She sighed heavily. "I miss New York…"

Dan reached over to squeeze her hand in sympathy. "I know. I do, too. But, we'll be back there in just a couple more days. Then, you can make up for all the slumming you've been doing."

"I _suppose_." Blair glanced out of the window, then slapped at his arm. "Pull over here."

"Will you stop with all the hitting? Why are we stopping?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Stop being a baby. We're stopping because I think I just found us somewhere to stay for the night." She gestured over to a small guesthouse set back from the road in well-tended and picturesque gardens.

"That could work," Dan agreed, and turned the car into the driveway.

# = #

The room and large en-suite bathroom had met with Blair's grudging approval, and the walk-in double shower had met with Dan's (and Blair's too, once he demonstrated its possibilities to her… extensively). As a result, they were both feeling contented and relaxed as they walked into town later that day, hands clasped between them. The bar that Blair had noticed earlier was easy enough to spot, since it seemed to be the only one in town. From the outside, it was innocuous enough: low lighting, what appeared to be the world's tiniest dance floor, and neon signs over the dark hardwood bar that wrapped around one side of the room.

Dan pulled back on Blair's hand as she went to enter. "Are you sure about this? You really don't have to prove anything to me, you know. And I'm not sure this is your kind of place."

"Are you calling me a snob, Daniel Humphrey?" Blair's lips pursed together and her eyes narrowed in that expression that he'd already grown to recognise as her 'tread-carefully-or-you're-sleeping-on-the-couch-tonight' look. "I am perfectly capable of spending time amongst the _hoi polloi_. I married _you_, didn't I?" The glance down her nose suggested she was rethinking that decision.

"And while I greatly appreciate that sacrifice on your part, I was merely suggesting that we could try to find somewhere a little more quiet… and romantic," he suggested, giving her his best puppy-dog eyes.

"Nice try, Humphrey. But, we're still going in." And with that, she tugged him along behind her into the dimly lit, noisy bar.

A tray of nachos and two so-so margaritas later, and Blair was scrawling her name and chosen song on a slip of paper to hand to the guy organising the karaoke. She slid a blank piece of paper over to him and he stared at it for a moment before giving her a 'you've-got-to-be-kidding-me' look.

"Pick a song, Humphrey," she instructed. "If I'm doing this, then you're doing it too. That way, neither of us has anything to hold over the other."

"Yeah… I don't really sing in public," Dan said, reluctant to commit to making a fool of himself in front of a bunch of strangers.

"Yes, well, you didn't do a lot of things before you met me," Blair said brightly, batting her eyelashes at him and making him chuckle. "Time to broaden your horizons yet again, Humphrey. Loosen up a little."

Dan shook his head in disbelief, but he did look through the song list and write down a choice. Neither of them let the other see what they'd picked and they spent the next fifteen minutes or so guessing at possible song choices. Dan nearly choked on his drink when Blair suggested he might have gone with 'I'm Too Sexy'.

"Um, n-no," he spluttered, pounding on his chest to try and stop the coughing.

Blair merely raised one shoulder in a nonchalant shrug. "Pity," she said. "Seems like a fairly obvious choice to me." She eyed him flirtatiously over the rim of her margarita glass and Dan felt the impact of that look all the way down to his toes.

He leaned over and nuzzled the side of her neck. "You know, you really shouldn't look at me like that in a public place, Blair. Not when there's no way you can follow through on it right now."

She tilted her head to the side to give him better access and hummed happily in the back of her throat. "Hold that thought, lover boy. Looks like I'm up." Then, trailing one finger lovingly down his cheek and pressing an all-too-brief kiss to his lips, she sashayed up to the stage area.

She looked beautiful in the warm spotlight, he reflected, her cheeks flushed a little with nervousness, hands clasping reflexively at the microphone. He put his fingers in his mouth and gave her a piercing whistle of encouragement, enjoying the look of admonishment she sent his way in response. When the first soft chords of the song kicked in, he found himself almost holding his breath and then her voice came through, strong and sweet, and hit him somewhere in the middle of his chest.

_"How do I… get through one night without you? If I had to live without you… what kind of life would that be?"_

She stared straight at him as she sang, and he thought he'd never loved her more than at that moment, where every emotion was laid bare for him in her eyes. Her voice was every bit as good as she'd claimed, effortlessly soaring into the crescendos, but it was her openness that moved him. For once, she wasn't Blair Waldorf, society queen and scourge of Manhattan. She was simply Blair… _his_ Blair… standing there in front of dozens of people they'd never met and would never see again, and telling him that she loved him, with simple and devastating candour.

He joined in with the enthusiastic applause that greeted the end of her song, watched as she bobbed a quick, graceful curtsey and smiled at the crowd, then stood to meet her as she walked slowly and confidently back to their table. He pulled her into his arms and leant down to capture her lips in a tender kiss.

"I love you, too," he said, and if he'd thought she couldn't look any more incandescently lovely than she had singing her heart out up there, he'd have been wrong. His words seemed to make her glow from within, smile widening, eyes shining like stars, and he had to shut his eyes for a moment, as if he was staring directly at the sun.

"That's quite a reaction," Blair whispered. "Perhaps I should sing more often."

"I don't think my heart could take it," Dan admitted wryly, brushing a wayward curl away from her face.

She laughed girlishly, placing a light kiss on his cheek before sitting back down. "Well, I hope you brought your A-game, Humphrey. Because, as you can see, I've been quite the hit tonight."

"I'll do my best to live down to your expectations," he said, sitting back down at her side and wrapping one arm casually around her shoulder, so that her head tilted easily to rest on him.

In the end, they'd both had a couple more drinks before Dan was called upon to display his vocal prowess. Since he knew he had no hope of matching Blair's emotional punch, he decided to ham it up for entertainment value instead, hoping that Blair would still recognise how much he meant the lyrics of the song he'd chosen.

_"Now, if you feel that you can't go on, because all of your hope is gone… And your life is filled with much confusion, and happiness is just an illusion… And your world around is tumblin' down… Darling, reach out…"_

He attempted his best 'Four Tops'-style dance moves, complete with spins and dramatic reaching movements, and was pleased to note that, by about three lines in, Blair was giggling hysterically in the corner. By the second time through the chorus, tears were rolling down her cheeks as she tried to control her mirth. Knowing he could bring her so much happiness, even if it came from playing the clown, always gave him such a buzz inside. And when he walked back to their table afterwards and she looped her arms around his neck and planted salty kisses all over his face, he figured it was worth making an idiot of himself.

They were both extremely tipsy by the time they got up to do an impromptu duet of 'It Takes Two', but they still managed to bring the house down. And curled up around Blair later that night, as she hiccuped quietly into her pillow, Dan thought that maybe this was the best part of what they had found with each other: true companionship; a connection that allowed them to find joy in the simple things, as long as they experienced them together. He placed a soft kiss on the nape of his wife's neck and drifted off to sleep.


End file.
